#1 - What Is Web 2.0?
One of the most important ways we can build word of mouth advertising for our site is to understand and use the concepts that make up Web 2.0. Ok, um, well, what exactly is Web 2.0 anyway?
We've all heard a lot of talk about Web 2.0.
In fact, maybe we've heard so much talk about Web 2.0 that we're now more confused than clear about what the term means.
In a search for clarity, let's see if we can boil our understanding of Web 2.0 down to one key concept.
Web 2.0 Is About Community
A Web 1.0 website is built around the author of that site.
A Web 2.0 website is built around a community of people who share a common interest.
An Example
Here's a Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 example I encountered recently in my own work.
Web 1.0
One of my sites is Nature-Talk.com. As it stands today, most of Nature-Talk focuses on nature media my wife and I have developed in our exploration of north Florida.
Nature-Talk.com is a Web 1.0 site. The content of the site all comes from my wife and I. Even the blog articles that point to other sites, were written by me.
Web 2.0
In my research for Nature-Talk, I discovered BirdCinema.com.
BirdCinema is exactly like YouTube, except that all the videos are of birds. It's an excellent resource for bird lovers.
BirdCinema.com is a Web 2.0 site.
The content on BirdCinema.com is contributed by users, just like on YouTube.
The owners of BirdCinema.com didn't focus the site on themselves, and the owner's bird videos, but instead choose to focus on creating an environment where a community of bird lovers could gather and share their own videos.
Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 Compared
Nature-Talk, a Web 1.0 site, is by and about me.
BirdCinema, a Web 2.0 site, is by and about a community.
A Web 1.0 site is like a speech given in an auditorium. One person talks, and everybody else sits and listens.
A Web 2.0 site is like the cocktail party after the speech, where everybody meets and talks with everybody else.
The Next Step
Now that we've offered a simple way to understand the heart of Web 2.0, let's continue in the next article to explore why Web 2.0 concepts are important to the process of building word of mouth marketing for our projects.
